Sweet Dreams
by a-happy-little-ending
Summary: ONESHOT! My 2nd story - set in the TARDIS :D Rose falls asleep, and the Doctor thinks about how lonely he'd be without her. Serious fluff action going on here! Please review :D


**Sweet Dreams**

For once, it was a quiet day in the TARDIS.

Rose leaned against the console, handing various oddly shaped tools down to the Doctor, who was at that moment in time lying on the floor trying to fix something. He did this a lot, and it often got very boring for Rose as she didn't know what to do or how to help.

On this particular day Rose was completely exhausted. The day before, she and the Doctor had gone to save some planet in the Injabrox constellation. As usual, there was running involved. Lots and lots of running.

Sighing, she collapsed onto the pilot's chair and let out a massive yawn. The Doctor turned round to look at her and gave her his widest grin.

"Tired?"

"Shattered..." She replied weakly.

The Doctor laughed.

"Honestly, I'm nearly finished. Just give me two minutes -"

Rose groaned. "You're always 'nearly finished'," she muttered, as she slumped against the chair and let her eyelids droop.

About 10 minutes later, the Doctor finally jumped up, brushing his dirty hands, looking satisfied with his work.

"AHA! All done! Told you I was nearly finished, didn't I! Honestly, you humans – can't wait for anything, can you? All I had to do was charge the -"

The Doctor stopped when he turned around and realised Rose was lying on the chair, completely motionless.

"Rose?"

He received no response.

The Doctor's hearts stopped. Was she hurt? Was she just sleeping? Was she even breathing?

"Rose? Are you alright?"

She rolled over and mumbled something sleepily.

A great sigh of relief escaped the Doctor – he hadn't realised he had been holding it in. He could now clearly see the steady rise and fall of her chest as she breathed gently, in and out. Travelling around the universe and saving alien races was all in a days work for him, but all this recent action must have completely tired Rose out. Slowly, he made his way to Rose's side.

Although she was sleeping in what was probably a very uncomfortable position, she looked incredibly peaceful – almost like an angel. The Doctor brushed the golden strands of hair off of Rose's face, and grinned. Her face was graced with a small smile, her arm hanging off the chair with her fingers barely touching the floor.

She was so beautiful. It was times like this he realised how lucky he was to have her travelling with him. She could be on Earth with her friends, her family, making a name for herself and earning money, but instead she was in a strange new place with an even stranger man. But the Doctor didn't complain - there was no one he would rather spend his time chasing the stars with than Rose. He loved everything about her – the way she smiled, the way she laughed…..everything.

But nothing lasts forever. If anyone knew that, it was the Doctor. He knew it all too well.

On many occasions he questioned himself - was he doing the right thing, travelling with her? He felt guilty about taking her away. She was a young girl; she had her whole life ahead of her. But here he was, selfishly keeping her all to himself, putting her in danger almost every single day.

The sad truth was that the Doctor didn't want to be alone. But he had to live on – it was just the curse of the timelords. Even if he wanted to settle down he couldn't – there would always be planets and civilisations to save. Danger and monsters. Good and evil. Time and space.

It was a very long, hard journey ahead of him, and the thing he feared most was the fact that somewhere along the line he would lose her. He would lose Rose.

She was only human. If she miraculously managed to survive the dangerous life she led, she would still get old and tired. Funny, the Doctor thought, how time was one of the only things he had left, and yet he could not give more time to Rose.

The Doctor looked more closely at Rose and tried to memorise every single thing about her face.

Her eyes. He would miss her eyes. He liked the way they lit up every time she set foot on another planet, every time he spoke her name.

Her smile. He would miss the big grins she always gave him when they were about to do something completely stupid and reckless, just for fun. The Doctor lowered his eyes and smiled when he saw the arm that hung from her limp frame.

Her hugs. He would miss the way she leapt in to his arms and held tight, like nothing in the universe would ever make her let go.

Then he looked at her hand.

That hand. It fitted perfectly in his. When times got hard, she always knew when to take his hand. He did not know exactly how she could tell when it was appropriate, but he never questioned it. That was one of the many great things about Rose Tyler; she just knew exactly what to do, always.

Could he ever survive without her being there by his side, holding his hand?

The Doctor sighed. It was best not to think about these things just yet – they still had some time ahead of them, and that was a great blessing.

He was suddenly aware of the fact that he was staring at her. If she suddenly woke up, it would look very odd to have a 6ft tall alien staring down at her. Part of him knew that he should take Rose to her room, but he was quite content to just sit there and watch her sleep. Besides, he didn't want to wake or disturb her.

Without thinking twice about what he was doing, he took off his brown overcoat and draped it ever so carefully over the slumbering body. With one final glance over his shoulder, he went back to the controls of his TARDIS.

If his gaze had lasted just a little bit longer, if he had not looked away, he would have seen a small smile creeping across Rose's untroubled face.

She was, for once in her troubled life, completely happy.


End file.
